Hands

These hands once strong and busy
Now seem so inhumane,
Compared to applying bandages
Or searching for a vein.

To wipe emerging newborns
Who are screaming their first breath,
To hold worn, experienced hands
Of those embracing death.

Nursing felt so worthwhile
With its many healing arts,
My hands touched many bodies
As well as aching hearts.

Some days I feel the burden,
Of your pain and my own.
Its descending heaviness
Like lead within my bone.

Were I Mrs. God Almighty
So many things I’d change
Beginning with your life and mine,
So much I’d rearrange.

I’d start with all the injured
From war and accidents,
All the fine young men and women
Dealt life’s cruelest incidents.

Courage has new meaning
When I witness what they do
Returning into battle, wounded,
Much like me and you.

We slog along each day
Heels off the ground we tread
Each step is filled with pain,
As we steadfastly tramp ahead.

There’s no way to stop this train
Though we long to disembark
The journey, it continues,
As we wobble in the dark.

When our lives become too small
Isolation tugs the heart
Our courage a mirage,
Oops, there goes the apple cart.

When splayed out on our backs
We stare up at the sky,
The universe whispers
“Simplify, while you comply.”

My hands, no longer worthless
If they reach out to you
Together we have courage
As together we pursue;
A life with deeper meaning
With purpose and a goal
Although we’re deeply altered
We can still be made heart whole.

It’s not about the distance
It’s not about the pain
As long as we hold hands
We have so much to gain;
Strangers once, no longer,
We’re united in the soul
Gathering our scattered lives
We make each other whole.

When you and I clasp hands
Albeit cyber space,
We find comfort and affection
And our world’s a better place.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sue Falkner-Wood

Sue Falkner-Wood is a retired registered nurse living in Astoria, Ore., with her husband, who is also an R.N. Sue left nursing in 1990 due to chronic pain and other symptoms related to what was eventually...read more